


Feel the Rain

by hellraisin



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Anders Lives, Anders Needs a Hug, Drabble, Gen, Rain, Rainy Days, a little bit angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 11:40:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5742454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellraisin/pseuds/hellraisin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A study of Anders' relationship with rain.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Feel the Rain

The first time Anders sees rain, that he remembers at any rate, it is beating down against the roof and walls of the circle tower. Anders and a few of the other young apprentice mages are gathered by one of the windows in the library, staring at the glass. The rain falls against the window, leaving streaks and droplets behind, and Anders is fascinated.

For some reason, water falling from the sky seems far more magical than anything anyone in the tower could possibly conjure, and it’s a completely natural phenomenon.

How can anyone question magic when it exists so plainly?

 

* * *

 

  

It’s on his third escape attempt that the rain finally catches him. Anders has been nervous for miles, head whipping around to look behind him any time he hears the slightest noise, but his feet keep moving.

He makes it all the way to The Hinterlands before clouds form up in the sky, and suddenly, droplets are cascading down against the dense earth, catching on the leaves of the trees around him. It falls into his hair, on his face, against his robes.

It is light at first, but it gets heavier, and heavier. Anders has been wet before – swimming across Lake Calenhad to escape tends to do that to do – but never like this. He looks up at the sky, feels the water falling down on to his face, and breathes a great sigh of relief.

This is what freedom feels like.

 He just wishes it could last forever.

 

* * *

 

 

Being a Grey Warden is fun. Less fun than Anders had hoped, but if it keeps him out of the Circle for good, then who is he to complain? Of course, he realises that he has only swapped one prison for another, what with the short life span and the tainted bloodstream, but at least as a Warden, he can feel the rain on his skin all the time.

Which, he finds, happens often in Ferelden.

It happens so often, in fact, that he sometimes finds himself seeking shelter from it. He pulls a hood over his head to keep his hair dry, or will find refuge in a nearby inn to get away from the onslaught of water falling from the sky above.

It isn’t because he hates the rain though. It’s because Ser Pounce-A-Lot whines from beneath his robe if he gets slightly wet, and Anders can’t have that.

 

* * *

 

 

It does not rain in Kirkwall.

Anders spends almost a decade there, and does not even think twice about the rain. He does not miss it – not really. How can he miss something he has barely experienced?

He walks through the city with Hawke and his friends – if he can really call any of them that – and finds that the heat is sometimes too much. When they go to The Wounded Coast, Anders thinks he might sweat his feathers off. The water along the coast is warmer than Ferelden’s waters, even if the two places share The Waking Sea.

He does not experience the rain any more, but sometimes he dips his toes into the waters and closes his eyes and imagines.

Even with the templars looming, he is still free here, and he will not forget it.

 

* * *

 

 

He does not feel the rain again until after Kirkwall.

They sail with Isabela for a time. She procures herself a ship, and many of Hawke’s friends go with her, just to get away from the rubble.

Anders is still surprised he is invited.

There is a storm one night, as they sail. Not dramatic enough to affect the way the ship moves – Isabela is not shouting at her crew, or frantically manning the wheel – but enough to allow rainfall on deck. They all stand out there for a few moments, and Anders expects to feel the familiar sigh of relief, the feeling of freedom that comes to him when the water hits his skin. He expects to feel light and airy and full of possibility.

He feels nothing.

He feels nothing at all.

 

* * *

 

 

When they all depart from Isabela’s ship, Anders goes back to Ferelden, alone. He does not know why.

He is a fugitive here, cloak-bound constantly, and living under a false name. _Another_ false name. Only Kirkwall’s survivors know his face, and none of them will find him here.

Justice has been quiet.

Hawke has forgiven him.

The mages and templars continue to fight.

But Anders is still free, if alone and burdened and broken.

He has himself.

When it begins to rain, he looks up at the sky, feels the water falling down on to his face, and breathes a great sigh of relief.

This is what freedom feels like.

He just wishes it could last forever.

 

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. I wrote this at 8am, seriously jet-lagged, and then posted it immediately. It may actually be terrible. IDK.
> 
> 2\. Hit me on on tumblr [here](http://www.peachkeeping.tumblr.com) and twitter [here](https://twitter.com/Dev_Riot).


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